Pulitzer laureate Lewis Spratlan's imaginative Hesperus is Phosphorus was commissioned and performed here by The Crossing and Network for New Music. Building a libretto with texts ranging from Adrienne Rich and Richard Feynman to David Eagleman and the Magnificat, Lewis offers a re-examination of our perceptions and the discoveries found in rethinking them from a wider perspective.
Referred to by The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns as "a composition tour-de-force," this hour-long, nine-movement work for mixed chorus and chamber ensemble is a sonic bath, at times truly hysterical, at others deeply moving.
The Crossing
Kelly Ann Bixby 4 • Karen Blanchard 7 • Steven Bradshaw 3 • Maren Montalbano Brehm 6, 7 Veronica Chapman-Smith • Jennah Delp 7 • Colin Dill Micah Dingler 4 • Jeff Dinsmore 2 • Ryan Fleming 7 • Anne Fuchs 7 • Joanna Gates 7 • Steven Gearhart • Levi Hernandez 5 • Steven Hyder 7 • Chris Hodges 7 • Leslie Johnson Heidi Kurtz 7 • Vincent Metallo • Frank Mitchell 1 • Rebecca Oehlers • Rebecca Siler 1 • Stephen Spinelli • Daniel Spratlan 7 • Karen Wapner
John Grecia and Laura Ward, rehearsal accompanists
Donald Nally, conductor
Solos 1 – Big Light 2 – Paradox 3 – Unity 4 – The Afterlife II 5 – Falling 6 – Stepping Backward 7 – The Afterlife III
Network for New Music Ensemble
Linda Reichert, Artistic Director
Jan Krzywicki, Conductor
Arne Running, clarinet
Angela Cordell Bilger, French horn
Guillaume Combet, violin
Priscilla Lee, cello
Susan Nowicki, piano
Phillip O’Banion, percussion